Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has agreed to pay $16.68 billion (14.30 billion euros) and introduce new measures to better protect minors using its platforms, as part of a settlement with 29 U.S. states and other parties involved in legal cases. The agreement includes daily usage limits of two hours for both Facebook and Instagram, restrictions on nighttime use, disabling notifications during school hours, setting default settings to hide likes, and banning "aesthetic" filters—special effects that alter a user’s appearance. This decision follows two major court rulings in March 2026. In the first, a jury in New Mexico found Meta responsible for $375 million (322.5 million euros) after determining the company failed to warn about the risks of social media for minors and falsely claimed the platforms were safe and beneficial. Internal documents and testimonies from former employees showed the opposite. In a related case, Meta was ordered to pay $567 million (488 million euros) in August 2026. In the second case, a federal court in California ruled that Meta and YouTube were responsible for the harm suffered by a 20-year-old user who began using YouTube at age 6 and Instagram at 9. The plaintiff claimed the platforms contributed to her mental health struggles, including addiction, depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts. The court found the platforms’ design was negligent and failed to prevent such risks, awarding $3 million in damages. This case was part of a larger legal effort involving thousands of lawsuits, serving as a test case to determine how courts might rule on similar claims. Meta and other social media companies were concerned about a "contagion" effect, where similar lawsuits across the U.S. could lead to widespread liability. Competitors like ByteDance (TikTok's parent company) and Snap Inc. (Snapchat’s parent company) had already settled similar cases in California. The concern was that Meta could face a series of liability rulings, similar to the $206 billion settlement in 1998 involving the tobacco industry. The U.S. legal system has also been shifting in how it views social media companies. Since 1996, the Communications Decency Act and its Section 230 have protected online platforms from liability for user-generated content, interpreting the First Amendment in their favor. However, recent rulings have focused more on the design of the platforms themselves, known as "design liability." Meta and YouTube were found responsible for the addictive nature of their services, which they control and profit from through targeted advertising. In the European Union, similar concerns have led to investigations under the Digital Services Act (DSA), which requires platforms to design services that protect minors and conduct risk assessments of their features. The European Commission has criticized TikTok for its addictive design and Snapchat for failing to verify the age of users, allowing minors under 13 to use the platform. Meta was also found to have underestimated the risks of its features. Under the DSA, failure to comply could result in fines up to 6% of a company's global revenue. The U.S. settlements may influence the EU to strengthen its protections for children on digital platforms.